WHO ARE WE?
City Sightseeing is the leading worldwide operator of open top hop on - hop off bus tours. We provide information in different languages on the history, culture and points of interest along the tour route.
City Sightseeing operates in over 90 locations across five continents which includes key cities such as London, Rome, New York, Edinburgh, Istanbul, Seville, Moscow, Cape Town and Singapore.
As the World’s leading open top double-decker bus, town and city tour operator, established in 1998 - City Sightseeing Worldwide has grown from just four operations in 2000 to over 90 tours in 2012.
Our bright red, cheerful buses are now a well-known sight in key cities and towns around the world, we have created a brand which is well liked and instantly recognisable.With around 8 million passengers travelling with us each year, City Sightseeing offers sales opportunities for Wholesalers, Agents and Affiliates Worldwide, whether you’re interested in the FIT or Groups markets. WHY CITY SIGHTSEEING
CONTENT AND IMAGES
Our support team can supply you with the most up to date route information, rates and images. These can be supplied location by location, in CD format giving a complete list or via a direct API feed to our website. Updates, changes and other information are all sent by e-mail to a nominated contact address. If you are purchasing by linking to the City Sightseeing website and our booking engine the tour information and pricing is taken directly from there. We are also able to arrange a direct XML feed into your website to a generic home page or to individual locations by deep linking.
Commission Levels
One commission level for ALL of the tours regardless of the location, meaning you can earn an equal percentage from each tour. This allows for easy and fast accounting procedures.
Account Management
A specified account manager to look after all of your Sightseeing tour needs.
Training Updates All training needs are addressed in the form of webinars, conference calls ,online e-learning Monthly newsletters updating you on: and global call centre training for ALL of the City new tours introduced, future tours, value Sightseeing tours. added deals, introduction of new languages, changes to routes and anything else that we feel could be helpful to you. OUR PHILOSOPHY
Our Purpose
City Sightseeing delivers an innovative, enjoyable, flexible tour which provides a high quality service. We are committed to the improvement of quality in the tourism industry in each city where we are represented, as well as endeavouring to achieve complete customer satisfaction.
Our Vision
To be the first choice of tourists in each city where we operate and, on a Worldwide basis, to continue being the first choice for Sightseeing tours. All of this is obtained through excellence of service, environmental sustainability and social responsibility, commitment within our community and the creation of a suitable framework for the professional development of our employees.
Our Brand
Our Corporate image is one of the strengths of the company, globally recognised as a World leader by tourists looking for open top sightseeing tours. We are identified by our renowned red buses throughout the World. They have become an internationally recognised tourist attraction since the brand creation in 1998 and our first tour in Seville, to our many tours today which now operate on 5 Continents. Confirmed by our customer market research results, the values that City Sightseeing manages to transmit through its brand include:
• Freshness • Entertainment • Dynamism • Quality • Enjoyment • Reliability • Fun and amusement OUR SERVICE
Informative
With many of the tours offering a wide range of languages and several UK locations having a live guide the tours really do excite the imagination. Key destinations have tours that operate all year round, meaning you have more to offer your customers in the quieter season, and with commentary in several languages you may want to venture into outbound markets that you haven’t been able to do so before.
Freesale
The tours are “freesale” which means there are no complicated booking procedures or time constraints on arrival at the destination. All your customer needs to do is turn up with the agreed ticket on the bus.
Flexible
Passengers have the flexibility of a hop on / off ticket meaning they can explore a city on both bus and on foot and simply get back on the bus at any time. The ticket is usually valid for either 24 or 48 hours so they can visit places of interest as they wish.
Fun
The tours are structured to be “entertaining” with several of the tours also providing children’s commentary. An open top double decker bus is a great vantage point with excellent photo opportunities. THE WORLD OF CITY SIGHTSEEING
North America U.S.A
• Los Angeles • Hawaii • New York • San Antonio • San Francisco • New Orleans • Washington DC*
Canada
• Toronto
South America
Columbia
• Cartagena
Peru
• Lima
Panama
• Panama City Asia Oceania
• Singapore Australia
Middle East • Perth • Sydney • Blue Mountains Explorer • Sharjah
Africa
South Africa
• Cape Town
Oc eanía Europe Portugal Germany • Albufeira • Berlin • Lisbon • Potsdam Spain • Porto • Trier • Funchal • Seville • Aveiro France • Barcelona • Benalmadena • Paris*
• Cadiz *Non City Sightseeing franchisee • Granada • Malaga • Las Palmas Gran Canaria • Palma De Mallorca • Santa Cruz De Tenerife • Santander
Italy
• Florence • Genoa • Livorno • Messina • Milan • Naples • Padova • Palermo • Pisa • Rome • Sorrento • Trieste • Turin • Verona United Kingdom
• Bath • Glasgow • Belfast • Inverness • Blackpool • Ipswich • Bournemouth • Liverpool • Brighton • Llandudno • Bristol • London • Bute • Newcastle/Gateshead • Cambridge • Newport • Cardiff • Norwich • Chester • Oban • Colchester • Oxford • Eastbourne • Stratford-upon-Avon • Edinburgh • Windsor • Felixstowe • Woodbridge • Heart Of Warwickshire • York
Turkey Ireland • Istanbul • Dublin Netherlands Greece
• Amsterdam • Athens Other Cities Cyprus Norway • Malta • Brussels • Gozo • Warsaw • Paphos • Stavanger • Luxembourg • Tallin • Bergen • Reykjavik • Stockholm Denmark • Oslo • Prague • Copenhagem ONE STOP SHOP
City Sightseeing Worldwide offers almost 100 tours through one sales channel. By contracting your sightseeing through City Sightseeing Worldwide we ensure our agents receive the very best rates with ease. Instead of having 100 contracts and 100 contacts you have just one. Making your administration process easy and in the unlikely event of something going wrong for your customers, we will work to get the problem resolved as soon as possible. Also by contracting through the sales and marketing department, you will receive added value tours and discounts that are exclusive to us. KEY AGENT INFORMATION
Commission
Commissions vary according to business modus operandi and generally reflect the volume and range of tours sold and the amount of administration required to support the account from the options chosen. Typical commissions start at 15% and then generally increase depending on the amount of tours you are selling. By having a commission structure that is based on performance it gives you the incentive to sell more tours. Commission would then be reviewed on a regular basis or every 12 months.
Currencies
We contract / invoice all GBP, Euro and USD tours in the currency of origin. Invoices need to be paid in the currency of issue. The tour rates are fixed in advance and are shown in our rates document which is supplied at time of contract. For any tour whose currency that falls outside these three currencies we convert and contract in GBP unless otherwise agreed.
Travel Trade Opportunities
Whilst our global sales network numbers around 2000+ agents, currently around 80% of all City Contracting Period Sightseeing tour tickets are purchased on impulse in the location. There are therefore boundless Rates are guaranteed for a period of 12 months and are opportunities for agents to pre-sell our tours either as issued well in advance of their commencement date part of a package or as a stand alone activity. Which (in September for introduction the following April). This also helps your clients to budget effectively. ensures that both Agents printing brochures and those with long lead times on website bookings are well catered for. WORKING TOGETHER
WEBSITE
We now offer easy ways to link to us via our web site to make bookings:
A Affiliate Link: City Sightseeing offers a wide range of affiliate opportunities for selling City Sightseeing bus tours – by city, country or the whole range of locations. You can place your unique link anywhere on your site, and as many times as you like, any traffic which results in sales sent through this unique link is attributed directly to your account and commission is paid on the sale. All of our affiliate opportunities offer attractive rewards and have no set-up costs. Once you have your account set-up you can be selling tickets and earning commission in a matter of hours, we offer the opportunity to even more commission by means of an embedded cookie that will automatically track the customer back to your link for up to 30 days should they not book immediately..
B Agent Links: City Sightseeing now have a flexible new way for agents to make bookings using all the features of the new website – multi lingual / multi currency. With a simple Log In into the same consumer site you will be able to book tickets on behalf of clients via your Agent For our “On Account” agents sales a pre-arranged limit will Account and print our standard E-ticket for the be set and you will be invoiced at Net rates or we can provide client or e-mail the voucher direct. a unique code to enable you to receive your commission at time of booking for your clients, simply book on line and pay instantly with your Company Credit Card and, by entering your unique agent code, your commission will be discounted from the final amount at time of booking. HOW ARE VOUCHERS REDEEMED?
All tours are sold on a “Free Sale” basis, the vouchers, whether WORKING TOGETHER produced by you or by us, function as exchange vouchers, no pre-booking is required other than for groups over 10 people. TRADITIONAL VOUCHER METHOD When the customer hands the voucher over to a member of our staff we will provide them with a standard bus tour ticket that will show the date and precise time of issue. Customers We offer 2 ways of operating with vouchers. are then free to use the hop on hop off facility for the validity of your ticket as shown on the specific tour information as supplied. All vouchers are returned to our offices in the UK and your Invoice is collated and sent monthly with a spreadsheet of voucher numbers/passenger details. A Use our information and your own booking engine/sales system : We agree the format & wording of your own voucher* and we Invoice you for all vouchers redeemed and returned to our office at an agreed net rate. We invoice on confirmed bookings that you would advise us of by e-mail and on vouchers redeemed and returned. (*A copy of your proposed voucher must be approved by us before being issued)
B i) Use City Sightseeing pre-printed vouchers purchased in advance : City Sightseeing secure branded tickets incorporating an anti-fraud hologram image and printed on watermarked paper - are available in books of fifty, each coded and numbered consecutively. This enables us to ascertain the source of the ticket as well as the date of issue and the date received, making for a highly secure issuing process. Books are supplied location / passenger type specific. (ii) Use pre-printed tickets and pay on redemption: City Sightseeing branded tickets are supplied unspecified to a particular location / none passenger specific and must be completed before issue. They will be invoiced according to the highest Passenger value if not completed – full instructions are supplied. FACTS & FIGURES
CITY SIGHTSEEING WORLDWIDE HAS GROWN FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH OVER RECENT YEARS ENSURING WE REMAIN AS THE WORLD NUMBER ONE OPEN TOP BUS OPERATOR. CONTACT US
UK Sales Department
Unit 4 Pathlow Farm Featherbed Lane Wilmcote, Stratford-upon-Avon Warwickshire CV37 0ER United Kingdom
Tel: 0044 (0)1789 299123
Oliver Nicholls International Sales Manager - Worldwide Mail: [email protected] Phone: +44 7815 820316
Graham Toone Marketing Sales & Promotions Manager Mail: [email protected] Phone: +44 1789 299123
Daniel Rowley Sales Executive Mail: [email protected] Phone: +44 1789 299123